There can be many types of sales outlets. One example of a sales outlet can be a retailer that sells a particular product or service. Another example can be a vendor or supplier that provides goods and/or services to businesses or individuals. As a specific example, in a supply chain a manufacturer may manufacture products, sell them to a vendor, and the vendor may in turn sell a product to a consumer. In this context, the term ‘vendor’ refers to the entity that sold the product to the consumer.
Today, it is possible for a consumer to locate a vendor by browsing various Web sites associated with different vendors. Existing search engines allow a consumer to search online for a desired product. These search engines then return a list of vendors, often in the form of ‘hot links’, to the consumer.
However, the search results can have varying degrees of relevance to the desired product and/or the consumer. Consequently, there is always room for innovations as well as improvements.